Good/bad setup?

[chemflex]

One of my lfs is selling this setup for a marine aquarium for £395. If is a good setup and is it a good price?

Over Tank Luminaire Lighting (twin lamp)
36" x 18" x 12" glass tank
Heater and Thermometer
External Filter (Prime 30)
Mini Flotor sKimmer and Air Pump
Salt (6.33kg) & Hydometer
Master Test Kit
Coral Sand (1 sack) & Gravel Tidy
Calcium Plus (3 bags)
Background Picture
De-Chlorinator
Ocean Rock (1 sack)

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

I would say probably not, it's only a 33 gallon tank, and comes with a lot of stuff you realy don't need. Try reading the pinned articles at the top of the page.

 

[chemflex]

If you were personally starting a 36" marine aquaium, what setup would you have? (With brand names if poss)

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

Well, you don't need all of that equipment, Basically, you need a skimmer, Live rock, Live sand (not always) either VHO (very high output), or PC (power compact) florescent lights, about 7 watts per gallon of water, and a RO (reverse osmosis) purifier.
You don't need a filter, because live rock filters the tank for you, but if you want to go with filters and no live rock (not the best choice you could make), you would not need the extra lighting.
The skimmer most people recommend is a deltec mc500 internal skimmer, or a Biostar Flotor Protein Skimmer, both are supposed to work very well.
A RO filter hooks up to your tap (not to your faucet) and filters out almost all particles in the water, giving you almost completely pure, dechlorinated water (which means dechlorinator is useless). You can get them cheap off sites like ebay.
If you didn't read the article at the top of the page, Live rock is a type of porous rock that is farmed from the sea, it contains all sorts of critters, and beneficial bacteria that essential created an instant cycled tank without a filter. It is fairly pricey though.

You really need to read a book about this stuff though, almost everything for Saltwater keeping is different, including stocking levels etc. and no amount of posting can replace a fully written book

 

[Hsieyun]

Not for that much.

 

[Landlocked]

A good book is "The Consciencious Marine Aquarist", by Robert Fenner


----|
---(+)
_//=\\_ The lunar lander is here!

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

If you were planning to move your scats to this tank (topic you created in oddballs) then I though you might want to know that a tank of this size would not be adequate for them.

 

[Hazmat]

A good book is "The Consciencious Marine Aquarist", by Robert Fenner

Great book, I have it myself